Issue 570

Shop - Clothes Swap

MULTICOLOURED SWAP SHOP

28 Feb 2007

Photography: Kate V Robertson Additional research: Diana Kiernander I hate this dress. I bought it in a sweaty panic in the tenth shop I’d run into, after discovering that a boyfriend’s sister’s birthday party was going to be more formal than…

Bat for Lashes - Exposure

Bat For Lashes

28 Feb 2007

Tomorrow’s music today. Brighton singer-songwriter Natasha Khan’s debut album, Fur and Gold, is a dreamy, fairytale world of wolves, wizards and facial glitter. Thom Yorke and Devendra Banhart are fans of her melancholy, mystical sound and her…

Pixar

MOVING PICTURES

27 Feb 2007

In Toy Story, which reached our screens an astonishing 12 years ago, the only things on the screen which look animated are the humans. Woody the toy cowboy, despite his name, is human, endearing, attractive. Buzz has the chin and charm of a Hollywood…

Mohsin Hamid

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamish Hamilton)

26 Feb 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA Mohsin Hamid’s spare, haunting second novel takes the form of a one-sided conversation struck up between a bearded Pakistani man and an American tourist in a restaurant in Lahore. Changez was once top of his graduating class at Princeton…

News Extra

FESTIVAL FRENZY

28 Feb 2007

Words: Mark Robertson and Allan Radcliffe Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your local ticket outlet, several festivals unveil their wares at once. Triptych celebrates a triumphant seventh year of esoteric eclecticism with 79 reasons to…

DVD Round-up

28 Feb 2007

Highlights this fortnight include, of course, the very quick turnaround release of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Fox, 4 stars). As you may have noticed we try not to focus on the really big releases…

Eagles of Death Metal - interview

Ladies men

28 Feb 2007

When I first met Jesse ‘The Devil’ Hughes he did not strike me as a man at whom frilly black panties are routinely tossed. Hair slicked back with sweat, eyes shielded by aviator shades and lips shrouded by a long dropping moustache that more closely…

Eat - Masala Jak's

EAST MEETS WILD WEST

28 Feb 2007

Back in the great American goldrush of 1849, as thousands of prospectors flocked west in search of their fortune, one man stood out among them, albeit for panhandling skills of a different kind. His name was Jagir Singh - aka ‘Masala Jak’ - a man who…

Hollywood's Four Biggest Lies

HOLLYWOOD’S FOUR BIGGEST LIES

28 Feb 2007

The film industry is pretty simple to break into if you first understand some basic concepts. However, there is some nonsense that surrounds the industry that keeps first-timers away from writing, directing, producing or starring in a movie.

Dito Montiel

INTERVIEW

28 Feb 2007

‘The book is so different to the film, it’s more about people that I knew. I put my name to one of the characters in the movie, but it is not like an autobiography or a memoir. Of course, there are things that are personal, but I mixed up the people. I…

Singles & Downloads

28 Feb 2007

The road to musical hell is paved with good intentions. This year’s Comic Relief charity single sees two of our most treasured girl groups unite for a cover version of Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’ (Fascination/Island - 2 stars). Unfortunately, while the…

10 Great Films

From the Berlin Film Festival 2007

28 Feb 2007

Away From Her (pictured) Atom Egoyan’s favourite actress Sarah Polley’s debut feature delivers a powerhouse drama concerning the effects of Alzheimer’s on a 50-year-old marriage. Julie Christie stars; no doubt she’ll be up for an Oscar nomination come…

Rory MacDonald

RORY MACDONALD AND THE ORCHESTRA OF SCOTTISH OPERA

28 Feb 2007

DEBUTANTE Although it is inevitable - and indeed right - that young Scottish musicians don’t always continue their education and develop their careers on home ground, it is nonetheless satisfying when the raw talent that left returns with a highly…

After the Wedding

28 Feb 2007

There is a Polish proverb which states that ‘the woman cries before her wedding and the man after’. One man who is certainly crying after a wedding (even though it is not his own) is Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen). A strange series of events have brought him…

Tsyjo with Joe Locke - preview

Tsyjo with Joe Locke

28 Feb 2007

JAZZ Tommy Smith launched his Youth Jazz Orchestra as a means of developing the most promising young talents in Scotland, and a number of players from the band have already graduated to the senior Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. TSYJO gig regularly…

Mastodon - preview

Mastodon

28 Feb 2007

METAL While metal continues to splinter and cross pollinate into a million different subgenres, each more wilfully obscure and self-conscious than the last, it takes a band like this quartet of Atlantans to reunite these individual pieces under the…

Zeus

Mariners, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Mar

28 Feb 2007

CLUB NIGHT While some clubs wind down due to changing tastes, and others change venue in an attempt to rejuvenate, one Edinburgh club is expanding its remit, with a new night aimed at the boys. Velvet, based at Mariners (a classy banqueting…

News - Fair Trade Experience

PLAYING FAIR

28 Feb 2007

Words: Allan Radcliffe Over the past few years, politicians and retailers have been working hard to cement Scotland’s reputation as a fair trade nation. It’s not often, however, that the country’s consumers get the chance to see the effects of their…

Azymuth - preview

Azymuth

28 Feb 2007

JAZZ Seventies Brazilian jazz legends Azymuth return to Edinburgh’s Departure Lounge club night to promote the international release of sublime debut album Azimuth (previously only available in Brazil) by London’s pioneering Far Out label. On its…

LCD Soundsystem - preview

LCD Soundsystem

28 Feb 2007

ELECTRO-ROCK Not many people have created as distinct a sound as James Murphy. As half of production duo DFA, Murphy launched The Rapture, The Juan Maclean and Black Dice, then remixed the hell out of the likes of Gorillaz, Justin Timberlake and Nine…

Comedy Academy 4 Kids

Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Mar

28 Feb 2007

WORKSHOP It’s a well-worn sentiment that kids say the funniest things, but James Campbell has taken that to a whole new level. Campbell is known for his child-friendly humour and has now brought his Comedy Academy to Edinburgh, with the successful…

* Hitlist

HITLIST

28 Feb 2007

LCD Soundsystem Wee James Murphy might not look like a rock’n’roll star but when his jackhammer electronica hits the live stage he could out do the Kaiser Chiefs for sheer civil disobedience. See preview. Barrowland. Glasgow, Fri 9 Mar. (Rock…

Also Released

28 Feb 2007

Ghost Rider (12A) 109min (2 stars) Wild man Nicolas Cage and wonder woman Eva Mendes go almost completely over the top in this spirited, special effects heavy and somewhat throwaway adaptation of the Marvel Comics supernatural superhero who’s a…

Air - 5 Reasons to see them

AIR

28 Feb 2007

1 Ils sont un groupe francais plus bon OK, we’re not going to keep that up, not with our school-level French. Anyway, for the last ten years, French duo Air (Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel) have, along with Daft Punk, been at the vanguard of…

Freedom Writers

28 Feb 2007

A touching performance from Hilary Swank ensures that Freedom Writers is not just another tripe genre movie about a teacher coming into class room to save savages à la Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver and Lean on Me. Set in the aftermath of the 1992…