If I still lived at my old place in New York, this is something I would have jumped on in a mirco-second. Granted, you can see most of Jean Luc Godard’s new wave films via Netflix, but nothing compares to seeing them on the big screen in a cinema. Ray recently made me aware that Film Forum is showing a selection of Godard’s films from the 60s and I’m kicking myself for not being able to be there to see them. Screenings started on May 2nd with the Godard’s brilliant Breathless and have since gone through, Le Petit Soldat, Two or Three Things I Know About Her, Pierrot Le Fou, A Woman Is A Woman, La Chinoise, Weekend, and a couple of others. Impressive as that list may sound to Godard enthusiasts, there’s still an excellent selection of films left to be seen in the series.

Tonight (for ONE night only) Film Forum will be screening the Godard’s “futuristic” Alphaville, one of my favorites from the French director. Following tonight’s screening and running on specific nights through June 5th will be Made In U.S.A., Band of Outsiders, Masculine Feminine, Sympathy for the Devil, Contempt, and Vivre Sa Vie. So grab yourself a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes and hit the Film Forum for a night between now and June 5th. If I had to pick just one, it would be (you guessed it) Band of Outsiders (clip below).

The full schedule of Godard’s 60s along with a brief synopsis of each movie is listed here

Film Forum is located at 209 West Houston Street, between 6th Ave and Varick

Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoski have been amassing some serious footage and pictures for the past three years and are ready to release the highly anticipated film, Deathbowl to Downtown a history of skateboarding in NYC. Their nostalgic style has produced two of my all-time favorite skate documentaries, Fruit of the Vine and Northwest. Known for their incisive and artful exploration of skateboarding and its culture, this looks to be an epic film that is long overdue. NYC is arguably one of the biggest and most diverse street skate cities in the world. Having been immersed in the skate culture since the 90s, local star Chloë Sevigny narrates.

I missed the premiere last night (saw the amazing Lykke Li at Bowery), but there will be another reception at Etnies Showroom in SoHo tonight. The Moving Image, “A photographic history of skateboarding in NYC” will have its opening party in celebration with the film from 7-midnight. I expect a fun party with free drinks and good music.

RSVP to RSVP@deathbowltodowntown.com
No need to RSVP, just show up.

Etnies Showroom
29 Grand St.
New York, NY
(212) 604-9988

Skate season is in full swing and the parks are open and events are happening all over the City. I kicked things off with a new setup. My Girl deck was inspired by the groundbreaking video from Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Jackass), Fully Flared. The intro above is just a taste of the style and beauty of this work.

The video was four years in the making, and is not suprising, considering the amount of footage and dangerous work. The intro ends with a “Switch Napalm Flip”, followed by a staircase being blown up with napalm. The soundtrack is equally impressive, complimenting the different skaters’ personalities. Here’s the list by skater/feature:

Intro: M83 “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun”
Mike Mo Capaldi: Arcade Fire “No Cars Go”
Anthony Pappalardo: Bad Brains “Don’t Bother Me”

Jesus Fernandez: Calexico “Alone Again Or”
The Royal Family: The Charlatans “The Only One I Know”
The French Connection #1: David Bowie “I Wish You Would”

The French Connection #2: Mannie Fresh “Real Big”

Cairo Foster: The Flaming Lips “The W.A.N.D.”

Jeff Lenoce, Scott Johnston, Rob Welsh: The D.O.C. “Lend Me An Ear”

Alex Olson stress: Hot Butter “Popcorn”

Alex Olson: King Diamond “One Down Two To Go”

Rick Howard: Echo & The Bunnymen “The Cutter”

Mike Carroll #1: Judas Priest “Riding On The Wind”

Mike Carroll #2: Three 6 Mafia “Triple Six Club House”

Brandon Biebel: Young Jeezy “I Love It”
Eric Koston #1: Public Enemy “Night Of The Living Baseheads”

Eric Koston #2: Public Enemy “Harder Than You Think”

Guy Mariano #1: Band Of Horses “The Funeral”

Guy Mariano #2: Band Of Horses “Is There A Ghost”

Marc Johnson #1: Q Lazzarus “Goodbye Horses”

Marc Johnson #2: Fischerspooner “All We Are”

Marc Johnson #3: She Wants Revenge “Us”

Credits #1: Unkle ‘Heaven”

Credits #2: Franz Ferdinand “All My Friends”

Full video (poor quality) here.

Most of the tattoos that grace my winter ravaged skin were inspired by old-school tattoo legends Sailor Jerry (aka Norman Keith Collins) and Bert Grimm. I’ve been fascinated with the Hawaiian-based tattoo artist’s Japanese influenced art for the better part of the last 5 years and was psyched to see that Philly filmmaker Erich Weiss will be premiering his Sailor Jerry documentary, Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry this year at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival.

Read some more about the tattoo legend and check out some of his flash at Philly’s very own Sailor Jerry Store. Synopsis below. Trailer here.

Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry is a feature length documentary exploring the roots of American tattooing through the life of its most iconoclastic figure, Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins. Considered by many the foremost tattoo artist of all time, Collins is the father of modern day tattooing, whose uncompromising lifestyle and larger than life persona made him an American legend. Through rare interviews, photographs and hours of archival footage, Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry: The Life and Times of Norman Keith Collins, explores the past, present and future of the global tattooing phenomenon.

[MP3]: The Ruby Suns  ”There Are Birds”
Sea Lion, Lil Chief/Sub Pop; 2008

I loved Indiana Jones when I was a kid, but when I heard another sequel was coming out after 18 years, I was skeptical. Well most of that went away when I saw the teaser trailer that just came out. It looks just as adventurous and action-packed as the originals, but with better resolution and effects. I’m glad they did an older, wiser version on Indy that pokes fun at his age. Lets face it, Harrison is 65 now and ain’t no spring chicken.

I was browsing around Som Records in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago when I first heard the music of Sunil Ganguly. The owner of the shop had just received Ganguly’s Electric Guitar Hindi Film Tunes from an outside source and was playing it for the first time. I listened to the first three or so songs before approaching the dude working at the shop with a couple questions. Unfortunately, this was the first time that the shop owner had ever seen or heard a Ganguly album, so I had to result to Google and a co-worker to find out more about the Indian musician.

While I was still in the shop, the first thing I noticed about Ganguly’s tunes was his use of a Hawaiian electric guitar and a little research led me to discover that’s exactly what the respected gayaki style guitarist was known for in India. The Hawaiian guitar was used in Indian films during the 40s and 50s as background music as a sign of sorrow. The guitars were very popular in India because of the style in which it is played and the fact that traditional Indian music is built around melodies. Ganguly, a skilled classical Indian musician, re-made a bunch of hit Bollywood songs spanning the decades between 1940 and 1980 using a Hawaiian guitar. His mastery of the traditional song structure was meshed with elements like sitar synthesized sounds, funk, strings, flutes, Afro-Cuban claves, and of course the steel guitar.

I was talking to my co-worker about Ganguly and sent her “Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam” that I ripped from vinyl. She instantly remembered the song from her childhood in India and said it was from the popular Bollywood film “Sanam Teri Kasam.” You can check out the original song (with vocals by singer Kishore Kumar) and scene from the 1982 flick via YouTube and stream it on Music India Online. I’ve read that Ganguly didn’t always cite the films from which he covered songs, but on the record I have he did cite them.

Ganguly died in June of 1999 after a recording career that spanned more than 40 years that began in 1957 when his first album dropped on HMV. Check out the festive “Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam” below and for more from Ganguly and Hindi film instrumentals, head over to Bollywood Vinyl and Hamara CD. [Note: sorry for the lack of bass on the recording, I'm just getting the hang of converting vinyl to MP3 format]

[MP3]: Sunil Ganguly  ”Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam”
Electric Guitar Hindi Film Tunes, EMI; 1982

I got around to seeing Persepolis (trailer) last week, a film directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Peronnaud, based on Satrapi’s best selling graphic novel. The animated movie (done in mostly high contrast black and white with the occasional appearance of color) is set mostly in Tehran beginning just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution and downfall of the Shah (Mohammed Reza Pahlavi) and follows the life of the young Satrapi and her family during this turbulent time.

The way the film goes about retelling her youth, starting with the fall of the Shah and rise of the Islamic Republic in Iran (followed by the Iran-Iraq War) is captivating. Persepolis manages to be beautiful, funny, and haunting – gripping the audience and making her life connect with those of us who have never lived through such violence and oppression.

As a child, music had a big influence on Satrapi’s life as it does on a lot of kids. One of the funnier parts of the movie is when the rebellious Marjane rocks a “Punk Is Not Ded” jean jacket over her required attire complete with Michael Jackson buttons and sporting “punk (ie. Nike)” shoes. She hits the streets in this outfit after getting a tip that vendors are selling western music on the black market. She passes a few of the vendors, turning a nose up to the Bee Gees and finally one vendor catches her ear by saying “Iron Maiden.” After bartering she finally scores the Iron Maiden cassette tape only to be caught by two women accusing her of buying music on the black market and not wearing appropriate clothing (see image above). Marjane manages to get herself out of the ordeal (narrowly escaping a beating) and get home to rock out to the Iron Maiden tape. It’s an amusing way to touch on the opression that Marjane experienced and how Michael Jackson, Nikes, punk, and Iron Maiden had become precious symbols of freedom (to her).

The film also touches on youth culture and music (post Iran-Iraq War) when Marjane returns to Tehran from a long stint in Vienna. She arrives back to Iran to find 80s western culture in full swing apparent from the way her friends dress, secret dance parties, and one particular amusing scene scored to a off-beat version of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”

It shouldn’t go without mentioning that the Olivier Bernet composed soundtrack is a beautiful accompaniment to the film. It varies from Serge Gainsbourg styled tracks to piano ballads to Iranian disco music. The soundtrack also features some of the movie dialogue, which is all in French, along with some instrumental arrangements and the charming Chiara Mastroianni sung “Eye of the Tiger.”

Persepolis is in theaters now and the soundtrack was released on January 15th via Caroline Records and EMI. Both are highly recommended.

[MP3]: Olivier Bernet  ”Eye of the Tiger”
Persepolis Soundtrack, Caroline Records/EMI; 2008

[MP3] Speed Racer “TV Theme”

Over the weekend, I caught This Is England, a semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Shane Meadows (A Room for Romeo Brass and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands). The film is centered on a group of young skinheads in 1983 Thatcherite England and also touches on the The Falklands War and the rise of the white national front. The story is both beautiful and unsettling in its imagery and themes. There are parts of the movie that had me laughing and reminiscing about my childhood and other parts that had me cringing in my seat, head turned peeking out the side of my eyes. Newcomer Thomas Turgoose plays coming-of-age “Shaun Fields,” a 12-year old who has just lost his father in the war and is being bullied at school, brilliantly. Stephen Graham, who plays “Combo,” a bad skinhead, also delivers a powerful performance.

Getting to the point of this post, since this is a music website and all, the film’s soundtrack is incredible. It contains a bunch of reggae from Toots & The Maytals, The Upsetters, Al Barry & The Cimarons, along with 2 Tone ska from bands like The Specials. The music fits the film perfectly and merges wonderfully with Ludovico Einaudi’s melancholic piano score. There’s also some new wave stuff, including Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” and a cover of The Smiths “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.” The opening of the film pairs news clips depicting UK riots and (sometimes brutal) footage from The Falklands War with Toots & The Maytals “54-46.” It really sets the mood for the rest of the film.

Check out the trailer below and I highly recommend picking up the soundtrack too. Oh, and thanks Nghia for introducing me to the movie and letting me crash on your couch over the weekend. You too Gypsy.

[MP3]: Toots & The Maytals  ”54-46″
Single, Beverly’s/Pyramid/Trojan; 1968

I was one of the lucky few to witness the debut of Sufjan Stevens‘ BQE last night at BAM. Set in the regal Howard Gilman Opera House, the show consisted of two parts, the BQE and “Sufjan plays the hits”.

The civic-themed evening was a vision expressed by Sufjan through film and music. 8mm video choreographed to a live orchestra spanned the upper half of the stage, while intermittent live performances of hula-hoopers provided a more comical side to the show. The parallel worked, since the grainy film led us back to the early days of the BQE when car was king and the hula-hoop was invented. Sufjan played with imagery of tires and hoops spinning and our love-hate relationship with car-culture by building quiet melodies to intense frantic compositions.

Following intermission, Sufjan played most of his well-known pieces with perfection and beauty. Many of the songs were reworked with revised melodies or longer endings. After the show, I felt somewhat guilty getting in my car and heading back to the West Village across the Manhattan Bridge. But as I approached the on-ramp, I looked up to see signs for the BQE and just smiled.

More pics after the jump: