Losing my religion

"I made you a leaving gift"
"What is it?"
"A stick with some orange peel glued to it"
(or something along the lines of that...)

So last night after a weekend of unexpected partying, expected partying and recording I took a solo trip to the cinema to see Wanderlust. Very weirdly the cinema seemed to be full of people doing the very same thing, I guess a solo cinema trip is the perfect activity for a rainy Sunday afternoon in North London.

I don't want to give too much of the plot but basically George and Linda buy a tiny flat in NYC, lose their jobs, end up losing their flat (I don't understand why they didn't rent it out, I guess that would be less dramatic) and drive to Atlanta, on the way stay overnight at a commune and have an awesome night, then go to stay in Atlanta, hate it and end up back in the commune, where of course hilarity ensues, there is a money grabbing hippy, a nudist author and yep we get to see Jennifer Anniston tripping out on iowaska.

Watching the movie you spend a lot of time cringing at Paul Rudd embarrassing himself, doing his sexy talk and attempting to play the Spin Doctors. Paul Rudd is awesome as ever, but I think I would have liked to seen writer Ken Marino do the George part instead, he was so good as the cringworthy Ron in Party Down, that I think that would have really worked.  Ken Marino was awesome as George's brother Rick and deffo one of the highlights, though seeing as he wrote it, you think he would make sure he got a good part! Michaela Watkins did a great job as Rick's bored wife too.

I think my favourite bits were with Ken's ex-"The State" buddies David Wain, Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black (GO BUY HIS BOOK, mine is in the post!) who play news readers, and yeah, when they parody the Atlanta Grape Lady that kinda made me chuckle.  I also liked all the jokes about hippies, my brother's a bit of a hippy and has hung out with Shamen (but not Mr C), and I do tease him about drum circles and hippy stuff, I think I'd like to watch it again with him!

There are not really any indie references in the movie, but I think I heard an REM song being played, I guess any movie which is set in Georgia should have at least one REM song in it somewhere?  There were more references throughout this movie to "I Believe I Can Fly" than really necessary too, what was that about? 90's tastic!

I was so excited about the prospect of this movie, with so many awesome people being involved, but yeah something lacked a bit in it, still I do think laughing at hippy jokes is a fun way to spend a rainy day in North London.

I leave you with a song...a video from the best band from Atlanta, ExcaliBrah!!!



Official movie site

Big hands I know you're the one!

A rather entertaining Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode, perfect viewing for a wet Sunday night.
Stay dry!
Alicexx

PS Salem the cat was the best thing in this program by a mile, there should be more sarcastic talking cats on TV.

You are hero, you are off the hook

Yes so this blog is generally about indie music invading our favourite movies and TV shows, well sometimes it's the other way round and record labels pay actors to pimp up their videos, whoa!

Anyway I thought I'd use this blog post to show off a few of my favourite videos I've enjoyed over the last year or so.



Yes that's correct, we were all quite surprised to find Mr. Mad Men himself Jon Hamm in a Herman Dune video, but we rolled with it, according to our source he's a fan, wise man.

And good news ladies, I can confirm that Jon Hamm is as sexy in real life as he is on the telly, me and my girl Kate were literally 5 metres away from him at the filming of a Ronna and Beverly pilot the other week which was lotsa fun, and rather hot (it was the lights and that...).  We're in the process of writing a Freaks and Geeks zine so we will write more about it then.  Before you ask "what does that have to do with F&G?" it was a Paul Feig (Mr. Creator of Freaks and Geeks) produced pilot, we're rather excited that Paul Feig is trying to bring some boss TV to England.

Sorry, I got distracted segwaying the conversation to Freaks and Geeks...  Anyway Herman Dune are playing at Heaven on the 19th April supported by the tremendous Allo Darlin', get yr tickets here, see you down the front, mine's a vodka and diet coke etc etc.

Moving on...


I bloody love Apples (In Stereo), and Hobbit Boy Elijah Wood bloody does too! Because as well as starring in this video he's produced the one for Energy and check this, even paid a part in released the band's "New Magnetic Wonder" LP (which was awesome by the way) with his own Simian Records, watch him have a chat about his label, why not?



Apples (In Stereo) are playing ATP next weekend and I am very muchly looking forward to having a bit of a dance to them with my crew. See you down the front, mine's a vodka and diet coke, just in case you missed that before.

Up next Slow Club!

Love this song, but Moshi Moshi obviously spent all their money on getting Mackenzie Crook and paying for the ferris wheel that they forgot about much else!

And now onto the criminally young (he'll frikking 17!) Madeon


And there is also this very similar video of a Yelle remix.  Yes of course that is one Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks, Party Down, you know it), this video and music has some startling similarities to this...



We are currently following Martin Starr's rap career at The Shins Will Change Your Life, though I feel that discussing that here would be just too much excitement for one day! I promise that will be a full post about it at some point.

Anyway, did you enjoy those videos? Did I miss some equally awesome "actor in a pop video" moments? Leave a comment or drop me an email and I'll get onto it!

Hope y'all awesome
Alicexx

You know how much I wanted to meet your friend, the star of stage and local press

You like Belle and Sebastian?  You can act? Then you can be in Stuart Murdoch's movie!  Well you can at least audition...  Yep Stuart is looking to fill roles for 'Eve,' 'James,' and 'Cassie' (I guess you will know them if you know the album?) for his Kickstarter-funded musical film God Help the Girl.
More details here...


Reading the character descriptions the film sounds just like the kind of thing we like here at The Shins Will Change Your Life.  Good luck Stuart!

How to Tie a Tie

I recently discovered that in the last year eight people discovered this blog through googling "Joseph Gordon Levitt Cardigan", therefore to celebrate this, here is a picture of him rocking the great look.

Slightly weirder is that 35 people discovered this blog by searching "alice hubley blog", ok guys admit it, who has been googling me?

This video recently made the rounds on Facebook, it's a rather long Australian advert for Yellow Pages starring none other than indiepop superstar Tali White from Aussie favourites The Lucksmiths. Watch if you must, but it is a tad boring, basically Yellow Pages are good cause they are carbon neutral and a lot of people recycle them (cause they probably use the internet instead?).



Anyway, it's pretty cool that Tali is keeping busy whilst he's not making music, but wouldn't we rather be watching The Lucksmiths? Well in this current climate it's probably not long until the band will get back together right? Meanwhile, fellow ex Lucksmiths and Margarita expert Mark Monnone has been keeping very busy, running Australia's premier indiepop label Lost and Lonesome, playing shows all around the globe with Monnone Alone and also playing bass with TSWCOL favourites Still Flyin', listen and download their new jam now.





Anyway, I'll leave you with a trailer for a film I am so excited about seeing this weekend. It's the new Ken Marino written, Judd Apatow produced, Paul Rudd starring, David Wain directed Wanderlust (phew that was exhausting, but what a line up!). I don't think I've ever been so excited about seeing a movie with Jennifer Anniston in it ever! Anyway, I'll write more about it once I've seen it
See ya
Alicexx

It's Bizness Time!

A massive YEY to Brett McKenzie for his Oscars win last night. I can't work out how to embed the video but here is a link to Brett's acceptance speech, so cute and look at Jason Segel's proud face! It still makes me smile that Jason Segel wrote the film in London "because it felt more Muppety".

Less cute was Emma Stone's banter with Ben Stiller, great god, talk about car crash TV!

I still would've liked to have seen Bridesmaids or Jonah Hill have won something, but I guess the people who vote for The Oscars are old people that think movies about Maggie Thatcher are a good thing. I for one am waiting for "The Iron Lady - The Musical" with music by Iron Maiden, coming to the West End soon. I liked The Artist, partly because it had two people from Revenge of the Nerds in it, but am totally bored with all the awards it has won now. The dog really should have won the best actor award instead of the main dude!

We've just had a party weekend in London with the London Popfest, lotsa great bands played, friends from Scotland and Sweden visited, everyone ate burritos and we had awesome fun times at the late night Finsbury Park bowling alley/arcade games centre. Two of the bands playing, Shrag and Tunabunny are now on a tour that yours truely booked, I'm so proud to have worked with them! You should all go see them if they're playing in your city cause they are a lot of fun, these are the last dates few dates and you can find out more here.
Tues 28th Feb - Stereo, York
Weds 29th Feb - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow
Thurs 1st March - Mello Mello, Liverpool
Fri 2nd March – The Chameleon, Nottingham
Sat 3rd March – The Victoria (Dalston), London

You can buy tickets for Saturday night's London show here, do it!!!

Actor out of work (a premonition for the Gossip Girls at the end of this season?)

It's always ace to see one of your favourite bands on telly isn't it? So yes was a welcome surprise to see the lovely St Vincent on Gossip Girl last week! Check it out below if you missed it...

Isn't Gossip Girl ridiculous at the moment?! Though I loved the Nate/Elizabeth Hurley story line and whoo, what an evil prince we have here! Hopefully there'll be another 90's band cameo like when Sonic Youth were on, though it looks like they keep throwing whatever they get at the program so it's only a matter of time. BTW have you heard Taylor Momsen's band?

Other faves at the moment...

New Girl - Love her or hate her, lovely Zooey has definitely become a force to be reckoned with, what with her awesome performance on Saturday Night Live last week (Kristen Wiig's Bjork was particularly entertaining) and her pretty awesome website for girls Hello Giggles and of course New Girl. I think my favourite bit was seeing Zooey and Lizzie Caplan having a crochet night together (hey, I'm an indie girl that's crafty, ok?) and them attempting to play Eye of the Tiger on the bells, I love that song!

Hart of Dixie - We all love Wade right? And the mayor's really weird "sexy" face he pulls when chatting up the ladies, see the photo to my left for an example. We don't have Thanksgiving in the UK, but I'd rather have Planksgiving any day, arrr!!!

Parks and Recreation - Go team Knope! Really enjoyed Martin Starr's cameo the other week, I know how much you all like animated gifs, so here's one celebrating the moment.

Martin Starr has been rapping recently with a band called Common Rotation, they're playing LA tomorrow so go see them if you live there (I dunno who reads this though maybe you could live in LA and read this in time, let me know how it is if you go eh?). They do a rap that samples "Rich Girl by Hall and Oates, how awesome is that?! I'm not sure what the rest of the stuff is like, all the music on the website is country music, well there's not enough rap/country cross over out there is there?

Coming up...
I'm super looking forward to seeing Girls when it comes out, it's produced by Judd Apatow and stars Lena Dunham, and is basically Sex in the City for more normal 20 somethings. And even better Betty Ann Baker (the mum from Freaks and Geeks) is in it! I think I've watched this trailer so many times now, it basically is a more exciting version of my life, April can't come soon enough, enjoy...

And I just bought tickets to see Zack Braff's new West End Play All New People, so looking forward to seeing it, I hope he mentions The Shins in it!

I'm going to try and post more regularly on here from now on, cause I've forgotten about it, probably cause I've been watching too much TV and yes making music with my new band Cosines. Put the 14th April in yr diary, we are playing our first show, crikey! We should hopefully be supporting my dear friends Still Flyin' when they come over in May too, they were played not once but twice on The Office the other week in the pool party episode, yey for them! More information when I have it, now I've got something to plug again I can update the blog!

Hope you're all having an awesome 2012 and got your "operation stay Olympics free" strategy in motion! I will tell you all about mine another time.
See ya
Alicexx


Last but not least, you know how much we like Feist at this blog, I stumbled across this today, how many times does she sing the work "counting"?