Beirut - Cliquot

Beirut - Le Moribond

In 2007, Beirut released their sophomore album in all the conventional formats: MP3, CD, and vinyl. However, the band also teamed up with La Blogothèque‘s Vincent Moon to produce a video for each song on The Flying Club Cub. Together these videos were released on a DVD entitled Cheap Magic Inside.

The DVD was very popular among fans of the band, and quickly sold out online. For years the project’s website claimed more copies would be pressed and made available to the public soon. My own inquiries into the matter appeared fruitless… That is until this month.

This month Cheap Magic Inside was made available to all for free. The sequence of events leading up to this point began with a simple email to Beirut’s label, Ba Da Bing Records, from fan Chris Peterson about the DVD. Upon receiving word that it had sold out and there were no plans for future pressings, he asked cautiously, “[I]s there any chance you’d make the files available for download? Since you’re not selling the DVD anymore?”

The answer Chris received back was just short of unbelievable: After consulting together on the issue, Beirut, Ba Da Bing, and La Blogothèque sent Peterson the next-to-last copy of the DVD under the condition that he make it as widely available as possible. And that he did!

Now fans of the band can watch Condon & Co. parade through the abandoned courtyards, lofts, bars, parks, churches, and side-streets of Brooklyn, with each song’s video taking place in its respective location but still edited seamlessly together to create the effect of a unified album. Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear also steps in for Owen Pallett and makes a special appearance in the scene for “Cliquot”. And while the majority of the film takes place in New York City, the credits show Zach Condon crooning an a cappella rendition of Jacques Brel’s “Le Moribond” while riding in the back of a presumably French cab in a scene that appears to pay a homage to London’s Black Cab Sessions.

Cheap Magic Inside can now be downloaded in both DVD-quality and iPod-optimized formats on Chris Peterson’s blog and as a torrent on The Pirate Bay. With his permission, I’ve also made uploaded the DVD-quality files to Indeed Indie:

• Feature Film
• Individual Videos

To download the files, simply right-click (or control-click) and “Save As”. Happy New Year!

Illustration by Julia Scheele

Magnetic Fields - Underwear Magnetic Fields - Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits

Though their last two albums have been released on a subsidiary of a major record label, the Magnetic Fields’ roots are firmly planted in the independent music scene. 69 Love Songs, the band’s final release on independent label Merge Records in 1999, has gained near cult following in the past decade. Included in this group of fans is a collective of artists from London, England who have decided to pay tribute to the album through illustration.

According to the project description, the group decided to to take on the gargantuan task of illustrating all 69 songs via exchanges made on Twitter. So far, comics for 11 songs in the series have been posted on the collective’s blog called How Fucking Romantic. Of those, one of my personal favorites is “Underwear” as illustrated, and pictured above, by Julia Scheele. The amazing potential of this project is also showcased in “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits” a short comic by Dani Lurie– who knew cartoon genitalia could look so adorable?!

View the rest of the series at How Fucking Romantic.
Purchase the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs through Merge Records.

A cheeky, literal title written in a hand-drawn font, surrounded by shaky animation, and soundtracked by the latest indie band– Must be an independent film, right? Not so fast! In the latest installment of Strong Bad E-mails, The Brothers Chaps identify the differences between modern day independent film and so-called indie movies.

Best known for their internet flash comic series Homestar Runner, the Chapman brothers often incorporate pop culture references into their cartoons. Which leads me to wonder, have indie movies become enough of a trend to warrant their own distinct sub-genre apart from the rest of independent film? Strong Bad seems to think so.

In his analysis, Strong Bad sites three major categories in which there are key disparities: soundtracking, casting, and premiere showings. All of these are for the most part determined by the amount of financial backing a production studio is willing to provide for a given film. The cartoon details a costly formula for creating a seemingly low budget indie film that grosses hundreds of millions at the box office. With the relative commercial success of Juno, a movie that reportedly cost $7.5 million to make and earned over $231 million worldwide, major film studio’s indie and arthouse subsidiaries seem to have jumped on the formula’s proverbial bandwagon.

The question then arises: Are modern indie movies any less genuine than their low budget independent counterparts? For the purpose of this website, I chose to limit my coverage of independent film to both types of movies, but with added discretion given to those released by distant subsidiaries of the Big Six. As a music enthusiastic, it is a personal pet peeve of mine when indie movies appear to revolve around the music they are soundtracked by, rather than focusing in deeper on the film’s plot. If I wanted to hear a bunch of pseudo-hipsters name-drop some obscure band the screenwriter thinks kids in the 18-24 age demographic would like, I’d go to a concert.

Watch The Brothers Chaps’ delightfully snarky review of independent film here, and please reply with your thoughts in the comments section below. Do you think there is a major difference between independent film and so-called indie movies? Are indie movies any less authentic than the independents? Do you think this new trend in film production is a good of bad thing? Keep it clean!

Volcano, I'm Still Excited!! - New Brad Volcano, I'm Still Excited!! - Joe Jaxon

Don’t let the plot synopsis deceive you: Yes, the movie as about two buddies who during a night of partying drunkenly commit themselves to participating in an amateur pornographic film contest. However, that is pretty much the only thing Lynn Shelton’s mumblecore film Humpday has in common with modern bromance comedies.

Starring mumblecore pioneer Mark Duplass, as well as Joshua Leonard and Alycia Delmore, the film stays true to the movement by employing the use of lo-fi filming equipment and techniques to provide a more authentic glimpse into the lives of today’s young adults. The script was even thrown out during some scenes, as actors opted to improvise dialog in order to make the film appear more realistic.

Having premiered at the Sundance film festival to high acclaim and winning the Special Jury Prize for the Spirit of Independence, Humpday was picked up by Magnolia Pictures and released nationwide. The movie is currently playing at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema in Atlanta.

Prior to becoming an actor and director, Duplass was in the Polyvinyl band Volcano, I’m Still Excited!! Yes, the two exclamation points are part of the band name. Though the group disbanded several years ago, fans of Volcano, I’m Still Excited!! have called upon Polyvinyl to reissue their lone eponymous release. The record label is currently raising the funds necessary to press a limited edition vinyl LP. If you enjoyed the tracks above, I highly suggest pre-ordering Volcano, I’m Still Excited!! through the Kickstarter fundraising website.

Humpday Trailer
Movie Website

The Weepies - Happiness

I have a confession to make: though I am an engineering student who started a blog, I am by no means a proper nerd. I do not run Linux on my laptop, play Dungeons & Dragons, nor read graphic novels. I do, however, possess the sappy heart of a 20-something indie girl. It is with that authority, that I can declare that Andy Runton’s lastest Owly installment is extremely adorable.

Released in conjunction with the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, Andy’s usual pen and ink drawings are brought to the silver screen courtesy Sprite Animation Studios. A former graphic designer who worked with computer icons, it’s no surprise that Runton’s signature pictographic “speech” bubbles come complete with computer notification sound effects in the animated short. The piece is also soundtracked by folk-pop duo The Weepies.

The animation, as well as original storyboard by Andy Runton, is available via the Sprite Animation Studios website. More information about Andy can be found on his personal site.