You won't get every girl

Now that my dissertation is handed in I'm officially a free man, so I should be able to dedicate a bit more of my time to this blog and, most importantly, actually start reviewing things again. However, the effort involved in getting the dissertation handed in has worn me out, so for now, here's a round-up of things that have caught my eye over the last few days:

For starters, NPR Music are now streaming the new Broken Social Scene album, Forgiveness Rock Record, here, and Heaven Is Whenever, the new album from The Hold Steady, here, which is fantastic news if you're as excited about both releases as I am. I just need to be careful not to overplay them before May 3rd.

Next, I'd like to recommend reading this excellent feature on Werner Herzog's incredible Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call - New Orleans. Then go out of your way to find a copy of it somewhere, in order to experience an absolutely stunning performance by Nicholas Cage, who would have won this year's Best Actor Oscar if I had anything to do with the process. People seem to like his performance in Kick-Ass, too, so hopefully his career will see something of a resurgence (i.e. perhaps he'll stop starring in so many obviously godawful movies).

Listen to Surfer Blood pay tribute to one of their most obvious influences, as they cover The Beach Boys "Don't Worry Baby," and do a pretty reasonable job of it, in fairness. Having only heard their debut album Astro Coast once, I was reasonably impressed, and I'll probably end up spending a bit more time with it at some point.

And on a similar note, whilst everyone else might be getting excited by Thom Yorke covering "Love Will Tear Us Apart," or possibly Conan O'Brien's version of "Creep," the best cover version to emerge this week comes courtesy of Titus Andronicus and and Vivian Girls guitarist Cassie Ramone, who absolutely nail Weezer's classic "Undone (The Sweater Song)". So that's what I'm going to post. Enjoy:



Hopefully at some point this week I'll have reviews of Kill Shakespeare #1 (if I can get my hands on a copy) and possibly Kick-Ass, which has gotten such strong reviews that I'm genuinely excited about seeing it.