Director Jamie Moffett is making a film called The Ordinary Radicals which documents the Jesus for President tour, featuring authors Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw [h/t: Dan Ra]. Here is a brief description from their site:
Archives for category: indie
Or, as some might say, free!
Yesterday, Trent Reznor released The Slip, the new Nine Inch Nails album, gratis over at their website. It’s true, ol’ Trent didn’t even include a “pay what you want” option — just download The Slip for free! And, unlike the initial digital release of In Rainbows from Radiohead, The Slip is being released in high quality MP3, FLAC and other digital formats.
According to the NIN website, this free download is for the fans:
thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me
Is this the new distribution model for music?
…then maybe you’d be enjoying a medium half-caff, soy macchiato with an extra shot at the price of your choosing over at Terra Bite Lounge in Seattle. This approach flies in the face of the maximize revenue no matter what business model but, apparently, it’s working out. Here’s a bit more about the Terra Bite approach.
While the Terra Bite website makes it abundantly clear that they have “no political or religious message,” I see an important analogy for our church community as we’re in the midst of relaunching — that is, we want to be the kind of church in which our people commit their time, resources and love because they want to and they believe in it, not because of some religious or cultural obligation. We probably won’t be the model of efficiency, but it would be amazing to see people believing and investing in what God is doing here in our particular community.
… so it’s not too late to add to my favorite things of 2007 list, right? Well, even if it is, here are some things that I missed the boat on last year but am totally on board with now!
Let’s Stay Friends, by Les Savy Fav
Let’s Stay Friends should have been on everyone’s “best of 2007” lists and is everything a great punk album should be [h/t: J. Evans for pointing me in this direction]. I’ll let Pitchfork break down the play-by-play but I will say that LSF is an incredible album, diverse in all the right ways (and not just because Fred Armisen plays drums on a couple of tracks). Apparently, their live show is legendary (maybe you’ll get to ride horsey with them or listen to them lecture sometime soon).
Mirrored, by Battles
Battles features former members of Helmet and Don Caballero, although they sound more like the King of All Cosmos getting all mathy with Slint and a cryogenically unfrozen James Brown in the distant future. Although I might describe their vocals as if Simon ran off to join Hoover (he’s already got the glasses) and convinced them to merge into Q and Not U, Battles is quickly becoming one of my new favorite bands. Thanks again, J!
Once, the film and soundtrack
At another friend’s recommendation, my wife and I rented Once. In this age of big budget blockbusters, lengthy epic trilogies and overwrought period pieces, Once is a refreshingly quiet, small film. There is something so lovely about the film; it’s hard to quite put my finger on it. The soundtrack is soaring and still, genuinely heartfelt in our time of manufactured emo angst — my wife bought it for me as a Valentine’s gift. One day I’ll learn to play Falling Slowly properly.
…for inventing the internets all those years ago. Without your help, I wouldn’t have been able to place the music of Anathallo in this Vick’s advert (or, at least, not as quickly):
While I do like the idea that this one, mentholated commercial singlehandedly financed the upcoming Anathallo album, it kind of offends my indie sensibilities to have massive corporations co-opt songs that have personal resonance with me solely for the purpose of trying to sell me more stuff. I did end up purchasing this box of Vicks flavored tissues at Target the other day, but only because they were on sale (or, maybe, these ads are working subconsciously).
Reminds me of other ads I’ve seen featuring music that I like. For example, nothing says, “I need more ink for my printer” than a slow jam from some mopey Brits (alright, so the song is called “Pictures of You” and the ad is for photo paper but what possible connection can we make between “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths and a Nissan Maxima or “Stars” by Hum and a Cadillac CTS?).
I can’t get “doing things is what I like to do” out of my head. But there’s not a Dunkin Donuts anywhere even remotely near here.
EDIT: This particular Super Bowl ad from E-trade was kind of clever (“You know, me and the boys were talking about what to do with all this extra coin and I was like, ‘I’m renting a clown.'”) but creepy X2 [clown + superimposed-mouth talking babies = creepazoid robots].
headsparks* 