There will be prizes: a "Valtari" test pressing, custom print, and the "Hvarf/Heim" LP. Anyone who preorders the record gets a custom print. The CD and LP come out on May 29th. We will have the CD on sale and the 2LP will be $22.99
Sat, June 2nd 6pm - Reading by Jonathan Vance of Moss Icon
(End of an Ear is a proud sponsor of Music Mondays)
Monday, May 21 and Monday, May 28 - Trainspotting
Before he gave us movies about slumdogs and James Franco being stuck between a rock and an amputation, director Danny Boyle gave the world TRAINSPOTTING, arthouse sensation of 1996 -- and quite possibly right behind PULP FICTION as one of the most influential movies of that decade in the style and soundtrack departments. Adapted from Irvine Welsh's acclaimed novel, it's a cheeky, grimy tale of young and (mostly) handsome Scottish heroin addicts who basically just don't give a toss about growing up to live boring middle class lives. And they like Lou Reed. A lot. With its blend of frenetic comedy and skin-crawling horror (plunging into filthy toilets! Wall crawling dead babies!), TRAINSPOTTING is not quite an ode to junkies nor a preachy cautionary tale of drugs and ruin but rather some other different and far more entertaining cinematic animal. That's thanks in no small part to the film's soundtrack, which, so loaded with choice cuts -- from Iggy Pop ("Lust for Life," "Nightclubbing"), to the aforementioned Lou Reed ("Perfect Day"), to '90s Brit Pop (Blur, Elastica, Pulp) -- it became as much a breakout star as the film's impossibly young and skinny lead actor: Ewan McGregor.
Monday, June 4 - Stunt Rock
Sometimes a movie captures the imagination of a generation. And no movie has ever summed up the trashy yet vibrant polyester generation of the late '70s like STUNT ROCK, a nitro-glycerin cocktail of suicide-level stuntwork and amazingly awful mullet-rock. The band Sorcery, featured prominently throughout the movie, pulls hilariously terrible song after song out of their size 15 Wizard Hat. Meanwhile, we are treated to a documentary-style journey through the adventures of badass stuntman Grant Page, who literally has no fear of anything at all -- as he demonstrates conclusively throughout this movie. You'll see Grant set on fire, attacked by jungle cats, blown up with TNT, hurtled over countless cliffs and more. It probably sounds like the cheesiest movie ever made and in some ways it is, after all the band Sorcery has not one but two Wizards in their stage show, but the overall effect is of total exhilaration and that kind of convulsive laughter that comes from the deepest part of your gut.
Monday, June 11 and Monday, June 18 - Mystery Train
Man, it'd be so cool to have Jim Jarmusch's life. You'd get that awesome white-before-your-time, impeccably high pompadour. You'd get to go around smoking cigarettes and occasionally playing in bands -- you know, just when you feel like it. You'd be into everything way before it was hip. And every five years or so to make your "living" you'd get to make a hyper-cool movie with all the awesome actors and musicians you know, like this hyper-cool indie gem that follows three sets of intersecting stories of those adrift in Memphis, Tennessee. It's a tribute to the city that's home to Stax, Sun Studio, Graceland, and The King himself, Elvis Presley, all done in high Jarmusch-ian style: witty, laconic, and beautifully shot (thanks to cinematographer Robby Muller), and featuring a veritable roundup of cool-ass musician types like the Clash's Joe Strummer, the late-great Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and even Tom Waits as an unseen disc jockey.
