so, late pass on something prince did

Wrecka sto

So, I'm an awful blogger. Awful awful awful at this. However, I thought I'd write about this odd film I saw today (and hey, I'll write about films too, it's my blog dammit) by the name of Under the Cherry Moon. If you didn't know, it's directed by Prince. It's a weird one.

The follow-up to over-extended music video Purple Rain, Cherry Moon has Prince playing an actual character (!) rather than Purple Rain's Kid and, eh, he gets on as okay as somebody with that much natural charisma has. He plays Chris, a gigolo who steals money from rich French women with the help of his half-brother Tricky (Jerome Benton, now and forever the guy from The Time who holds the mirror up to Morris Day during "Jungle Love"). For their latest heist, they hear about an heiress by the name of Mary Sharon (Kristin Scott Thomas in her first screen role) and decide to take her $50 million trust fund. Then there's some stuff about her father and his corruption, as well as Chris' gig as a pianist, but really now, all that stuff, pssh, it whizzes by.

People hate this movie. Hell, Kristin Scott Thomas hates this movie: "When I left drama school...I was more afraid of not working at all than of the actual material I was being offered. And if you look at my very first film, you'll understand exactly what I mean." It won (is "won" the right word to use here?) five awards at the 1986 Razzies. It can't quite decide what film it ever wants to be: it is a screwball comedy, a rom-com, a heist film, a melodrama, and Prince is pretty much doing whatever the hell he wants at any given time. Nobody is really acting on the same quality level at any given time (when Prince cries, it's always funny) and the script is, er, an acquired taste. Oh, and did I mention that it's set entirely in Cannes during a time period that mixes together the 80s and 40s without ever truly deciding on which decade?

But because I'm weird and like films other people hate, I turned out kinda liking Under the Cherry Moon. It reminded me of Idlewild, the OutKast vehicle from a few years back, and Prince's film was probably a massive inspiration on that film for the idea of making a film set in a total fantasy world. Sure, the movies do that more than anything, but both Idlewild and Cherry Moon are obsessed with artifice, with cliche, with movie people doing movie things that only ever happen in movies. There's no need for the heiress' father to have the cops on his payroll and basically be corrupt, but hey, it's been done before - same goes for Benton's hysterical sidekick (he yells his way through this film and I really dug it) and Scott Thomas' totally inconsistent vamp/virgin/rebel. The main reason I liked Under the Cherry Moon is because it is a total fantasy, an illusion, a true movie. Mash cultures and times together, mash the characters together, mash the genres together. It's messy, but it's devoted to the artifice that we all kinda take for granted by watching better films.

Oh, and the soundtrack's great (released under the name Parade). Here's some songs from it:

Prince - Life Can Be So Nice
Prince - Mountains
Prince - Sometimes It Snows In April

This came on my iPod as I left a building this afternoon and the sun shone as I started walking away. Felt amazing.

Nas - Project Windows (MF DOOM rmx)

r.i.p. mistake us for friends (2004-2009)

So, Mistake Us For Friends, a Glaswegian punk band I've long championed on FLFD split up the other day. Which sucks, because I've only seen them live once and their album Kill the Composer rules. Copied + pasted:

"After so many years of drinking, touring and writing songs we have decided to split up. The band have went through several changes through about 8 or 9 years and when it got to steve,beanzy,sean and stu everything seemed so right. We toured, we wrote we unfortunatly didn't conquor. we should have though. Over the years we met and played with some amazing people and bands and those memories will never leave us. We will always appreciate everyone who helped us along the way and we would just like to say thank you to everyone that bought any of our cd's or other merchandise but most of all supported us. It seems a shame that after our hard work we done nothing. we toured with no album and when we finally wrote an album we stopped touring..i guess we kinda went our seperate ways. There's nothing more i can say to you all than thank you. I will personally miss the gigs and touring but i guess times change.We will always remember the good times and the bad but we loved it all. Always feel free to get in touch as im still gonna read the messages on here....also, Stu, Beanzy and Sean have got a new band on the go called THE RECOVERY..they don't have a myspace or anything as yet but they are demo-ing some stuff so please check them out as soon as possible! i will keep you up to date. i've heard stuff from sean's phone and although it was a rough recording it sounded great so mind and check them out.. Other than that i doubt you guys will hear much from me so personally id like to say..once again...thanks for the memories. cheers. STEVE X"

This blows. If you're late to the band, here's some tracks from their LP:

Mistake Us For Friends - I'm Fighting Me

Mistake Us For Friends - The Man who Ate the Democrats

Their earlier EPs are out of print, so click here for their snazzy Fashioncore and s/t EPs from, respectively, 2003 and 2004 via Skatepunkers. Buy Kill the Composer from their myspace page, the link to which is at the start of this post.

the heartbroken mothers, it happens too often

It's half one on a Monday morning and I'm sitting here listening to old DMX on Spotify. My legs are cold, I'm tired and have had a pretty uneventful evening. But goddammit, I'm listening to DMX. And it's amazing. Feel like going outside and yelling the lyrics at the top of my lungs, which would be hilarious.

To note:

That second song is my shit. Last one's a classic, AS IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW

and so you should be hung

Last week on FLFD, my compilation of the week was a punk/oi compilation by the name of Still Out of Fuckin' Order. It's a pretty good compilation, albeit one where a lot of the bands sound the same. Blitz, however, have/had (?) a sound that was definitely their own and, hell, a lot more appealling on the ears. Here are two of their tracks off Still Out of Fuckin' Order:

Blitz - Someone's Gonna Die Tonight

Blitz - Razors in the Night

BONUS SHIT: Braindance - Paedophile

Buy Still Out... here from Step 1 Records.

je-sus-fuckkkkk

Right, I'm pretty sure you've heard of DJ Ironik after he sampled Westlife on his hit single "Stay With Me" which, y'know, blew. Now his new single "Tiny Dancer" has, um, sampled Elton John's song of the same name at length. Holy fuck. THIS SHIT IS AWFULLLLLLLLL. The song is below for your horror:

Ironik feat. Chipmunk - Tiny Dancer

And, courtesy of Pickens at UK All Day, this video of Westwood not letting the Elton John thing drop on his show has pretty much made my evening. Hold it close now.

freedom!

I went for a walk the other day because my third year of uni was finally, finally over - sorry for the lack of updates, I blame it for that - and listened to Lovesexy by Prince. What an album, here's the best track on it, I'll be blogging again now, I'm getting a Prince tattoo next week.

Prince - Anna Stesia

Oh, and FLFD is up on Air3's Listen Again page - just scroll down to Friday, 10-12am, fast-forward to 0:52 and enjoy. Do it. Do it. Do it. You owe it to yourself!