we and the folks took last year off, but came back with a mengeance (whatever that means) this year.  saw 5 flicks over 3 days, all were Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers, and all will be blathered about below in blurb form (in order of seeing them)

A Quiet Life (Una Vita Tranquilla)
Official Site | 100 Minutes

Rosario (our man Toni Servillo of Il Divo amazingness) escaped Mafia death in Italy, leaving his wife and son behind, and now has a new wife, son and QUIET LIFE as a restaurateur in Germany.  Everything’s fine and dandy… until his long lost son juss so happens to show up with his lunkheaded partner for a murder for hire gig in the area.  Director Claudio Cupellini keeps the tension tight and kitchen knives sharp, in this, only his second feature.  Impressive enuff stuff that deserves an American release, and yer eyeballs

 

The Swell Season
Official Site| 90 Minutes

What happened to those crazy kids after Once?  No, not the quasi-movie versions of themselves, but the real McCoys, Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová (collectively known as The Swell Season), who went on to much fame, acclaim and Oscar glory.  Great question!!!!  And that is EGGGZACTLY what the doc Twice The Swell Season answers!  He was a seasoned musician with not much world-wide traction and she was a little girl just about to begin life, AND then all their wildest dreams came true AND THEN SOME!!  It wasn’t easy on either of them, especially her, and especially since they were lovers!!!!  DRAMMMMMMMMMA!!!  AND GREAT TUNES!!!!   AND MORE!!!  It’s often painful stuff, but it’s always interesting, but truly only for those who saw Once and Once to know more!

 

The Trip
Official Site| 107 Minutes

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon go on an English countryside romp, filled with rustic lodgings, questionable fine dinning and a lot of awfully awesome impersonations.  The title to Michael Winterbottom‘s funtastic semi-improvised flick (a summarized version of a the 6 episodic TV show of the same name) sez it all, and it’s a lot more dandy than the trio’s earlier effort, 2005’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.  Book yer ticket when this rock & rule story lands on our shores this June

 

Mama Africa
Tribecal Site| 90 Minutes

Miriam Makeba is… someone both you and thigh know NOTHING about.  Correct this, like we did, and see this doc (titled with her nickname) about the exiled South African singer and civil rights activist, who won the ears and love of people the globe over, with her click-clacking killah voice.  while you wait for release, get yer ‘Pata Pata‘ on [emp3 d-lode]

 

God Bless Ozzy Osbourne
Official Site | 91 Minutes

Dude, it’s an unflinching documentary about Ozzy’s life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There are both Black AND White Sabbath moments, and there’s plenty of red all over!!!!!!!!!!  The only bad thing about it is that it’s not longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

for all past years Thighbeca-ness, click here

The Swell Season
Radio City Music Hall
January 19th

The Swell Season were Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, you know, them star crossed busking lovers from Once. Yep, that’s ‘were’, not ‘are’ cause they aint no longers a duo only (also, they’re no longer an item). Hansard is also a part of band called The Frames and while he was off gettin famous with the quiet Czech girl, the rest of his ye olde band were sitting back in Ireland gettin filled with ire, and so Glennie incorporated the group into the Swell Season so they can join in on the riches and stop bitchings, or whatevs, but it doesn’t really matter who’s apart of the SS (damn Nazis!) cause this is Hansard’s show alone, and everyone else be merely puppets in his play of unexpected stardom. And while he and she (and them) are humble pie about the magnitude of going from zeroes to heroes, Glen also basks in his own glory, maybe juss a wee bit too much (his storytelling also carries on a weeeee bit too much). Not to say that he can’t, cause the dude is sortanlee gifted and talented (their/his follow-up Strict Joy is a… strict joy!! and sounded even more so live), but constantly asking your audience to sing along to yer songs when they probably wouldn’t in the first place is quite telling of how Glen views his own place in the world of music. He pours his heart and soul into every note, and while none of those notes are false, not all of them ring true. True or false? Huh? Dunno, but for the moist part, all was swell that ends swell, and we’re still holding out for Twice

setlist + mo pics over at BV

Thighs Wides Shuts’
Tops Twelves Albums
Wees Heards
This Years*

Röyksopp – Junior | Karen O And The Kids – Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack | Unofficial Eastbound & Down Soundtrack | Flight of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky | Fantastic Mr Fox Soundtrack | Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You | U2 – No Line On The Horizon | Air – Love 2 | Muse – The Resistance | The Swell Season – Strict Joy | Moby – Wait For Me | Jean-Benoit Dunckel – Cyprien Soundtrack

*out of a total of 12.31 albums that we listened to in the ‘009. yep, wees still far removed from today’s music, but we’re old and don’t have time for Lady Pupugaga and new things and stuff and don’t have a clue as to who 99.99% of the bands being Brooklyn Veganed about be, but no sweat off our backs cause this was a banner year for us in concerting (see below), as we took in 2 out of the top 3 shows we hath ever seen, and some of the others may go down in herstory as top 20ers, which is really saying something, but we’re not really saying anything, and if you know anything about music, yer probably not getting yer music knowledge here, but whatevs.net

Tunses For Toonces

super short edition
All Is Love – Karen O & The Kids [d]
The Chanukah Song – Neil Diamond [d]
The Fear – Lily Allen [d]
Fooba Wooba John – Burl Ives [d]
The Girl And The Robot РR̦yksopp [d]
He’s Behind You, He’s Got Swine Flu – The Streets [d]
Magnificent – U2 [d]
Total Love Warrior Song – Jean-Benoit Dunckel [d]
Too Many Dicks (On The Dance Floor) – Flight of The Conchords [d]
Uprising – Muse [d]

Concerts That Were
Tastier Than A
Certs Mint

Flight of the Conchords + Kristen Schaal @ Radio City Music Hall
Travis @ Webster Hall
Franz Ferdinand @ Roseland Ballroom
Leonard Cohen @ Radio City Music Hall
Phish @ Jones Beach
Fleetwood Mac @ MSG
Fatboy Slim @ Terminal 5
Blur @ Hyde Park!!!!!
Paul McCartney @ Shea II
Paul McCartney @ FedEx Field
Moby @ 9:30 Club and Irving Plaza
U2 @ Giants Stadium
Davy Jones @ BB Kings
Brian Wilson @ Bergen PAC
The 25th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary Concerts – Night 1 @ MSG
The 25th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary Concerts – Night 2 @ MSG
An Evening with Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop from Travis @ Joe’s Pub
Röyksopp @ Webster Hall
Matisyahu @ Sixth & I Synagogue
Phish @ MSG
Fiery Furnaces @ Bowery Ballroom

the past is the passed

’08
’07
’06
’05
’04
’03

in closing there waz one album, which was born in 1966 and wasn’t studio completed until 2004, that (shlong-overduedly) ruled our ears for all of 2009 and will until the dayz wees thighs dies: Brian Wilson – SMiLE. own it, rip it, d-lode it, love it

The Swell Season
Beacon Theatre
November 19th

The Swell Season are Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. If you don’t recognize those two names then you probably haven’t seen the movie the duo star in, which has quietly entranced audiences worldwide this past year. The movie in question is called Once [TWS.org review], and while I wouldn’t dub it a muss see, I will say that the sweet music the two create in and outside of it is a muss hear. In promotion of the film, they hit the road, but we missed them last time around (dearest Uncle Grambo didn’t). Luckily, the response was more massive than two shitz from Massachusetts and they embarked on a much larger tour of these United States. Last nite they took owned the stage at the Beacon w/their swell music and sweet melodies, all with the backing help from three of Glen’s Frames’ bandmates. Sirprizngly, they had enuff material to put on a full show. If you swooned to the flick and/or the soundtrack, then their show is your natural next destination. And if you already did that, then I guess we’ll juss have to wait for the movie sequel, Twice!!

Knocked Up
Baby Geniuses
Trailer

Bein such a negative Nelly when it comes to comedies, I honestly believed that no other movie was going to topple Hot Fuzz [TWS.org review] from the year’s top spot in good humor. That is shlubvs course until I was wowed by Judd Apatow’s latest sex comedy, Knocked Up. I was wowed simply cause I didn’t expect to be. I was probably the only person on earth who didn’t have his hilarity hymen broken by The 40 Year Old Virgin [TWS.org review]. It may not have been as numb and number inducing as any Will Ferrell comedy, but it wasn’t anything earth or youranus shattering either. That film was solely carried by Steve Carell’s innocence, but his innocence has been utilized far greater in pretty much every other thang he’s been in, well, cept maybe in Sleepover. So based on Virgin, I wasn’t eggspecting too much from Knocked Up, hispecially being a Michael Scott Free-less production, and a Seth Rogen love fest. Boy was I wrong, cause with Rogen drivin this ship, and by ship, I mean Katherine Heigl’s amazin bod to motherhood, not only did hilarity ensue, but reality as well. Yeppers. Up is not only loaded with laughter, but it’s 526% more realistic than most comedies. When’s the last time you could actually identify with the characters in the comedy? If your answer is Horatio Sanz in Boat Trip, then please cut out your eyes, then cut your penis in half and then shove each half penis into your now empty eye sockets. See Knocked Up, NOW!

Know Ledge: Count Rogen, along with 8 other peeps, were nominated for an Emmy in 2005 for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for their work on HBO’s Da Ali G Show

Don’t Knock It Tell You Try Them: 3,234 Knock Knock Joe-ks

John Grisham’s Jizzum (aka Verdict): Breast In Grant Show•

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Fool of Ship, I mean Full of Shit
Trailer

After the barnacle debacle that was adventure #2 [one of our better reviews mt everest], I thought the Pirates franchise had nowhere to go but up. With #3, At World’s End (hell, it coulda been called Curse of the Jade Scorpion for all I care), the franchise doesn’t move up or down, but laterally. Seriously folks, if they projected #2 in the theater, under the name of #3, I wouldnta known the difference. They’re the same exact pointless movie: some pirate captain returns from the dead, they sail somewhere, when they’re done there, they sail somewhere else, the crew goes rrrrrrr, uglfied Naomi Harris cooks some voodoo chile, Tessek gets slimy, Orlando Bloom bores me to death, and Keira Knightley doesn’t give anyone a lap dance. And to make splatters worse, the only worthwhile thang about the whole Pirates universe, Captain Jack Sparrow, doesn’t even appear until 40+ minutes in! And the tease they tack on after the end credits [vid] wouldn’t even whet the appetite of Dom DeLuise after a 3 month hunger strike!! If they really wanted to make Pirates 3 something worth writing home about, or even worth writing to a prisoner about, they should let every character get lost at sea, cept Cpt Jack and his screen father, Keith Richards, who arguably chips in one of the greatestist cameos in film history, and let the two give us a RUM for our money

IMDb Sweeney: Keef has 2 udder film credits under his belt, ’69’s Michael Kohlhaas – Der Rebell and the ’72 experimental Film Umano Non Umano, alongside Mick and former flame Anita Pallenberg

Pirate Booty: you didn’t ask for it, but yer mos def gonna click on it… KEEF RICHARDS, NUDE! [NSFW, DUH]

John Grisham’s Jizzum (aka Verdict): Richards and Depp barely save this sinking ship from total capsizement, so Not A Whole Lot O’ Merit But No Stinkin Badges Either•

Once
Irish Eyes Are Singing
Trailer

Frames frontman SLASH Commitments alumster Glen Hansard and Czech mate Markéta Irglová certainly make beautiful music together. For those of us who never discovered that fact on Hansard’s first solo album, which features the stylins of Irglová, The Swell Season, lettuce be thankful that the two decided to take their sweet sweet music and put in on display in one sweet sweet film. In Once, Hansard plays a Dublin street performer who befriends an immigrant single-mother, played by Irglová. They may be worlds apart, but musically, they’re more in sync than those two snake oil salesman who said ‘say’ in threes. The film is certainly rich in music, but sometimes a little too much. It sorta plays out like a 90 minute making of a music video, and sadly, in th
e process, the nice lil boy meets girl story kinda gets brushed to the side. By the time things start to gel between the two, the credits are rolling. The mind may wonder ‘what if’, but it’ll probably be too busy tryin to get that sweet sweet music outta yer pretty lil head

Netflex: if you’ve never, or haven’t in awhile, peep one of the finest music films mt EVEREST, Alan Parker’s The Commitments. Hear Glen talk about that film here

Apt MPupil3: Glen and Markéta‘s gem ‘Falling Slowly‘ [d|vid]

John Grisham’s Jizzum (aka Verdict): Jeepers Worth A Dr Peepers•

until next thyme the balcony is clothed…