Sitges Film Festival 2009: Amer, The Loved Ones, Doghouse, More
What you do in Sitges, Spain, during the annual Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic, is pretty much this: Wake up at 7:30 a.m. Eat breakfast. Hit first movie at 8:30 a.m. Continue throughout day. Break for late-afternoon nap, snack, interview or hang in the lobby bar of the Hotel Melia. Go see more movies. Go to dinner. Go drinking. See a movie (maybe). Go to the late-night party that usually begins after 1 a.m. Get back to room about 4:30 a.m. (with luck). Wake up at 7:30 a.m. And repeat. For seven or eight days straight. If your eyeballs haven’t... read more
Austin Film Festival 2009 Part Two
I don't know if festival programmers do this on purpose but sometimes you come across a documentary and a narrative that fit well together as companion pieces. This year the documentary Warrior Champions compliments the drama The Messenger. Melissa Stockwell in Warrior ChampionsWarrior ChampionsWhether they're embedded in Iraq for the Discovery Channel's acclaimed series "Off to War" or filming about the drug wars and sky rocketing murder rate in Juarez, Mexico for the New York Times, Craig and Brent Renaud have never shied from the dangerous stories. But with Warrior Champions the filmmakers look at the other side of war by telling the story of America's paraplegic... read more
Watch Fuse Interviews at Voodoo Experience All Weekend
All weekend long, Fuse will be at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, interviewing artists. You can watch these interviews in the player below. Check back to this page for new content through Sunday, or follow @PasteMagazine on Twitter to stay abreast of the updates.... read more
Sitges Film Festival 2009: Paranormal Activity, [REC] 2, The Descent 2
Once more into the breach, horror fans! This year’s Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic in Sitges, a charming coastal resort town a half-hour south of Barcelona, was the jump-scare capital of the world for the first half of October. The 42nd annual fest is a whirring vertiginous hypno-wheel of psycho-head blowouts, paranormal activity, zombie-stomping and dangerous visions—and not all of them are entirely confined to the screen.... read more
Austin Film Festival 2009 Part One
Ron HowardThe highlight of this year's Austin Film Festival was listening to director Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon, A Beautiful Mind), writer Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs of New York) and writer Mitchell Hurwitz ("Arrested Development", "Golden Girls") discuss filmmaking at the historic Paramount Theater. All three were recognized with AFF awards. Howard for Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking, Zaillian for Distinguished Screenwriter and Hurwitz for Outstanding Television Writer.Howard on doing real-life stories: "For a long time I avoided doing something based on real characters. I was fearful that I would lose command of dramatic potential. And I think I was just a... read more
CMJ 2009: Generationals, Pepi Ginsberg, Spinto Band, Javelin, Small Black
The body can only take so much CMJ. Not only is it tough to avoid H1N1 with several hundred potential carriers breathing the same air for hours on end, equally contagious is ever-increasing pessimism that spreads among writers who let their grouchy sides take over. And, as a six-time CMJ attendee, I agree that aspects of the fest feel do "smaller" and that bloggers have gotten better at spotting new talent before everyone gets there (or maybe new talent has just gotten better at spotting bloggers). But c'mon, crybabies. If you don't want an excuse to hit a bunch of... read more
CMJ 2009: Alec Ounsworth, YACHT, The XX, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Roadside Graves and More
Over the course of a properly executed CMJ Music Marathon, the participant will begin to believe that all life occurs in a dingy-bar basement, sustenance equals falafel stands, and that a 9-to-5-er cares about the plight of an orange lanyard-clad nimwit who attends concerts around the clock but can’t be bothered to charge their cell phone. Credit YACHT for a dose of alternative unreality to skew the focus yet again during a Thursday that also featured essential indie blog Aquarium Drunkard’s well-curated showcase, the XX at the Apple Store, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s frontman breaking loose, and Cymbals Eat... read more
CMJ 2009: Wild Yaks, Still Flyin', The Black Hollies, Title Tracks
Today’s CMJ Music Marathon tip jar is tied up with a piece of elastic, gold lamé ribbon for absolutely no reason at all. After spending Tuesday’s post mostly covering Paste’s showcase in lower-east Manhattan, your correspondent hit shows closer to home in Brooklyn last night. That’s right, the borough where dudes stow their orange lanyards for fear of snagging them on their unkempt beards.... read more
CMJ 2009: Warpaint, My Jerusalem, John Forté and More
CMJ’s annual Music Marathon is upon us. Unlike Austin, New York is always crowded and filled with idiots wearing orange lanyards, so the city barely lifts an eyebrow when overrun with however many thousand bands with names (Surfer Blood, Best Coast, Holiday Shores, etc.) that sound like they were yanked straight out of a Dick Dale tribute night.... read more
ACL Fest 2009 - Day Three
Before the Rains - Day OneAfter the Rains - Day ThreeIf they had a Lifetime Achievement Award for weather at music festivals ACL Fest would be giving acceptance speeches for eternity. From record heat to threats of hurricanes, from dust bowls to mud bowls, each year Austin never lets us down, and 2009 was no exception. Ironically, the work they did on the grass that made the first day so great was what made the last day so...yech! But I'm talking about the field, not the music, which was terrific. As I've been trying to do all weekend I passed... read more
ACL Fest 2009 - Day Two
Sam RobertsThe rain began around late morning and lasted all day. My small umbrella came in handy. Again, we had a lot of musicians coming by to do short video interviews plus photo shoots with photographer Jeff Fasano. It's been a cool way to quickly meet a lot of artists. Brett Dennen came by. Jeez, he's tall (and a heck of a lot thinner). He'll be on David Letterman Friday, Oct 9th. I told him he should start off his appearance by announcing that he did NOT sleep with Letterman. He just gave me a strange look. By late afternoon media... read more
ACL Fest - Day One
Dave Grohl with Them Crooked VulturesThe Dell Sound & the Jury competition that began months earlier with hundreds of bands competing online came to a head a couple days ago when The Bright Light Social Hour was chosen as top band. Their reward: To be one of the bands to kick off ACL Fest. Their Dell Stage performance didn't disappoint. They are a blast to watch, and I can't get their songs out of my head. I missed most of the other early bands as we were busy at the Paste Media Tent doing video interviews with artists for a later... read more
Fantastic Fest 2009 - Day One
Just like everyone else, film festivals have been hurting from the economic downturn. A piece of advice for all you ailing fests: give Tim League, co-founder of Fantastic Fest, a holler. Now in its fifth year League has created a monster of an event where I, the fan, am the most important person in the theater. You know you're doing something right when next year's VIP seats sell out in a matter of minutes which is exactly what happened earlier this week. You hear that? Sold out one year in advance! Aside from the typical horror genre they cover other... read more
Toronto 2009: A New Film from the Coen Brothers
The Toronto International Film Festival, which vies annually with Sundance for the title of Most Important Film Exhibition in North America, wrapped this past weekend, and Paste was there to sample the latest wares from the world's filmmakers. Red carpets were unfurled and appropriately soiled, movies were projected onto silver screens, and viewers were duly exhausted by both pretty pictures and, I'm told, nights on the town. In just nine days, TIFF screened over 250 feature films of all types, from major Hollywood business gambits to small experimental pieces, from the personal work of emerging filmmakers to the latest movies... read more
Monolith 2009 - The Music
Owing to some work conflicts back in Wyoming, I showed up eight hours late to the Monolith party last Saturday. By that point, monsoon weather had hit the festival. Spectators crowded beneath overhangs, while water ran freely down the steps of Red Rocks Amphitheatre.... read more
Monolith Recap, Day One: What the Fans Said
Day one of Monolith was wet and loud. Despite the rain, more than 30 acts hit the five stages at the epic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colo. In between fighting for tent space and pulling on ponchos, Paste braved the rain and asked the crowd about their fan favorites.... read more
Dragon*Con 2009: Terry Gilliam, Malcolm McDowell, Cosplay and the Bluth Company
This Labor Day weekend marked the 23nd annual DragonCon... read more
KahBang 2009: Ida Maria, Ra Ra Riot and Matt & Kim Bring Indie Rock 101 to Small-Town Maine
I have spent the better part of the last 21 summers in the town of Brooklin, Maine. It’s the quintessential small town—complete with a General Store where people order their “usual” sandwich and sit at the counter to gossip about the latest meeting of the Clam Committee—that most people only experience through television shows and movies. Maine is full of towns like this one, towns that seem oddly stuck in time, where everyone knows not only your name, but your business as well, and can remember the business of your deceased relatives for several generations. People still listen to classic-rock... read more
Lollapalooza 2009 Day Three: Been Caught Stealing
If there’s anything quantifiable about Perry Farrell and the evolution of Lollapalooza is that the dude, and the festival, is destined for a crown in weirdness. Even if it was his point from the get-go in ’91, disguised as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. But much like the many young hearts that jumped the perimeters of Grant Park, lightning-bolting through a concrete jungle of tunage and smiles for the glory of a free ticket, Lolla ’09 cruised the continuing frontier of rock and festival with several moments of bliss.... read more
Lollapalooza 2009 Day Two: I Wanna Be Your Dog
Perry Farrell, being the rock sheik that he is, kept wide-eying reminders to grumpy, rained-out folk on Friday about how the sun would dominate the rest of the weekend. But he failed to prepare along the way, kids hopping fences and stretching wristbands in his oversight. Or maybe he’s cool like that. Either way, combined with the hot, humid air you could cut with a butter knife, Saturday was a sweaty, unleashed mess of pop, beginning with the Iggy kind.... read more
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