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Ed Harcourt to Score Donnie Darko Sequel

Author: spencer

15 Jul

After years of notoriety in his native United Kingdom, our boy Ed Harcourt is finally making his name stateside. Following the US release of his album The Beautiful Lie (available now on Dovecote Records), and a stint on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Harcourt has signed on to write and record the score to the upcoming, and long-anticipated, sequel to Donnie Darko.

I tagged along with Ed for a bit at South By Southwest and caught him doing something his parents would not approve of. Check it:

From the Ink Tank Press Release:

LOS ANGELES, July 14, 2008 - The ever prolific British singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt is about to add film scoring to his repertoire, as he’s signed on for “S. Darko,” the supernatural sequel to the cult favorite film, “Donnie Darko.” Set in 1995, seven years after the original, Donnie Darko’s younger sister Samantha is the focus as she deals with her brother’s death and finds herself caught in the midst of a meteorite crash. The movie, which began shooting in May, is slated for a 2009 release and directed by Chris Fisher (”Nightstalker,” “Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders”). “I read the script and loved it, so I jumped at the opportunity,” exclaims Harcourt. “I’m really looking forward to experimenting and getting to do whatever I want. I have tons of ideas. This is all I’m thinking about - Darko on the brain.”

While Harcourt has returned to the states for another round of touring in support of the U.S. release of his acclaimed album, The Beautiful Lie, [June 3, Dovecote Records] he maintains he will be hard at work composing while on the road. “I’m coming up with ideas all the time,” he explains. “My goal is to compose something every day.” Venturing outside of the world of conventional songs, Harcourt says his references and inspirations run the gamut from “weird electronic music like Autechre and Aphex Twin to Clint Mansell’s score for “Requiem for a Dream,” to “Phillip Glass and Arvo Part.” “I plan for this to be sort of a merging of organic, acoustic instruments, like chamber strings and such with heavy atmospherics and drone,” he explains. “It will be surreal and psychedelic just like the movie. Greg Dulli recently turned me on to The Disintegration Loops I-IV of William Basinski, so that’s a big influence right now.”

(more…)

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Filed under: Art, Film, Music

Four Days after SXSW and Me Feet Still Hurt

Author: spencer

20 Mar

yuckfoot

I remember my first South by Southwest experience pretty well, considering the whole kid in a candy store / free music, free booze thing that happens in Austin TX every March. But the one thing I remember most was how much my feet hurt after the second day, and how happy I was when I visited the Riot Act Media party and found out that they were giving away free shoes. Saucony Jazz sneakers. I had brought nice-looking, but ill-fitting kicks with me, and once slipping into a pair of comfy shoes I was good to go for the rest of the week. It was like walking on the wings of sponge-angels. I podcasted something to that effect on the Synthesis radio site. In fact, since 2006, I’ve bought nothing but Sauconies (How’s that for good marketing, yo? You’re welcome for the free plug, thanks for the free shoes). Having saved my feet in 2006, David Lewis will forever be a saint to me.

This year, however, I failed to make it to a party featuring free shoes, and right now my brown Saucony Jazz sneakers, going on 6 months old, are in flattened shambles. It’s true, as outlined in my astute friend’s blog, musicismyboyfriend, there’s pretty much nowhere to sit at SXSW for more than a minute. You’re on the go from venue to venue to venue the entire time because, honestly, there’s just too much to see and so little time to see it. Sure, there are rickshaws (known in these parts as pedicabs), and I did use one after Chiodos‘ set on Friday night since La Zona Rosa is kind of a long walk from the main drag on 6th street. Otherwise I was on foot, and as of Sunday I’ve been developing the gnarliest athletes’ foot you’ve ever seen. If it gets any more personality I may have to give it a name. Updates as they come. In the meantime, Check out Video Matt being a drunk ass on a rickshaw. Hilarity! Snoochy Boochies!

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Filed under: Idiocy, SXSW

SXSW 2008 Cool Kids at the Red Bull Moontower

Author: Bill

18 Mar

The Cool Kids at the Red Bull Moontower:

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Filed under: SXSW, YouTube

SXSW 2008 Moment of the Week: Team Facelift

Author: Bill

18 Mar

Every year you have your SXSW moment - that one when you stumble on that thing you didn’t even know existed. Team Facelift at the Red Bull Moontower was that moment for me. I mean - the dude came out in a red onesie and goes by the name of “Fat Jew”. Plus according to their Myspace page they’re influenced by:

Our moms. Hasidic Jews. wizards. machine gun rap. getting drunk and alienating loved ones. shitting in bathtubs. trashing japanese motel rooms. cocaine buffets. box socials. wigs. fighting. watercolor still-lifes.

It’s like The Bloodhound Gang meets your mom.
Here’s the first of a few tracks I drunkenly recorded on SXSW 2008’s last night:

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Filed under: Beer, Music, Random, SXSW

SXSW 2008: Dizzee Rascal at the Bat Bar

Author: Bill

17 Mar

Dizzee Rascal played a Friday afternoon set to a packed house at the Bat Bar (which is actually inside the convention center - which also confused the hell out of me since I thought it was an actual bar). An expanded US release of Maths + English is coming out in April from Def Jux.