A new video has been up on the Death Cab For Cutie official website revealing to visitors to the site that a new album is currently in production and will be released in May of this year. It has been up there for the past month or so but I was completely unaware until earlier this week but now that I do know - it’s without doubt the one album I’m most anticipating this year. Death Cab’s previous 2 albums, 2003’s ‘Transatlanticism‘ and 2005’s ‘Plans‘ were probably two finest albums of their career thus far.
The teaser video mentions 3 cities (Seattle, Portland and San Francisco) in which they’ve recorded the album in 3 seperate studios and also mentions ‘44 Days‘ (am unsure what this means as the album is still somewhat in production, according to Chris Walla anyways). And has a fantastic, unknown though unmistakable Death Cab backing-track running through it (with guitars, pianos and drums - none of Ben’s vocals however). And it finishes on a Ben Gibbard sound-bite: “I just don’t feel like we really have anything to prove of it other than to ourselves and to making a record we really enjoy.”
The title of the new album (their 7th studio album!!) is reported to be ‘Narrow Stairs’ which was revealed in this month’s copy of Spin Magazine (January 2008).
The teaser video (as I’ve described above) for the new album (as shown on the official website) has been “YouTubed” as can be watched below:
Was sure I’d get more than that considering I own 2 Mac’s, an iPod, plan on getting an iPhone, have upgraded to Leopard and often try and convince people to buy Mac.
Clearly a flawed quiz designed with non-Mac hardware on a non-Mac OS!
For those of you who don’t know, The Razzies are the “anti-Oscars”. The Academy Awards are reserved for those movies which excel in their field - whether it be fantastic writing, impressive performances or even sound / technical wizardry - whereas The Razzies are simply reserved for those film which show a distinct lack of those credentials. Simply put, it’s the award ceremony for the downright terrible movies of the past year.
And it has grown to gain quite a following in Tinseltown. So much so that even Halle Berry showed up in 2007 to receive her ‘Worst Actress’ award for ‘Catwoman‘ (view that here).
So every year around the same time The Academy releases their prestigious list of nominees - the Razzies counter by announcing their own nominees. Top nominations this year include:
Only got around to watching ‘Life on Mars‘ before Christmas but watched both seasons of it within a fortnight. Absolutely excellent stuff - and probably the best production I’ve seen from the BBC in years.
And then came the spin-off - ‘Ashes to Ashes‘. And I’m really not quite sure what to make of this. For a spin-off to succeed (which it rarely does - with the exception of ‘Frasier’ and a few others), you need to typically put a new spin on the material in which it has been adapter from. It needs to at least have an air of originality to it but this brief promo doesn’t fill me with a huge amount of confidence. I really hope I’m proven wrong though!
So, the Academy announced their Oscar Nominations today. And it’s all a bit unsuprising to be perfectly honestly though one or two suprises - am personally very suprised that ‘Juno’ got nominated at all.I’m predicting ‘Atonement’ will win practically every category it’s nominated it in.. it’s an absolutely dreary and vile film - though the Academy will EAT IT UP!
Really hope Casey Affleck wins the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Oscar as he was fantastic in both ‘The Assassination of Jesse James..’ and ‘Gone Baby Gone’ but not a chance of him winning it unfortunately. Philip Seymour Hoffman will probably get it.
‘Once’ deserves the best ‘Original Song’ Oscar without a doubt, but disappointed that ‘Juno’ wasn’t nominated for it’s score (mainly contributed by Kimya Dawson).
Daniel Day Lewis has the ‘Best Actor’ in the bag.. and well-deserved as he was absolutely phenomenal in it. I now forgive him for his over-acting in ‘Gangs Of New York’.
Anyways, the nominations are below and the ceremony takes place on February 25th.
BEST PICTURE
“Atonement”
“Juno”
“Michael Clayton”
“No Country for Old Men”
“There Will Be Blood”
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
Julie Christie, “Away From Her”
Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”
Laura Linney, “The Savages”
Ellen Page, “Juno”
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”
Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd”
Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises”
Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There”
Ruby Dee, “American Gangster”
Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”
Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”
Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”
Hal Holbrook, “Into The Wild”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War”
Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton”
BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”
Jason Reitman, “Juno”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody, “Juno”
Nancy Oliver, “Lars and the Real Girl”
Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”
Brad Bird, Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird, “Ratatouille”
Tamara Jenkins, “The Savages”
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”
Christopher Hampton, “Atonement”
Ronald Harwood, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
Sarah Polley, “Away From Her”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Beaufort” (Israel)
“The Counterfeiters” (Austria)
“Katyn” (Poland)
“Mongol” (Kazakhstan)
“12″ (Russia)
BEST ANIMATED FILM
“Persepolis”
“Ratatouille”
“Surf’s Up”
BEST ART DIRECTION
“American Gangster”
“Atonement”
“The Golden Compass”
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
“There Will Be Blood”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” Roger Deakins
“Atonement,” Seamus Mcgarvey
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Janusz Kaminski
“No Country For Old Men,” Roger Deakins
“There Will Be Blood,” Robert Elswit
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Across the Universe,” Albert Wolsky
“Atonement,” Jacqueline Durran
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” Alexandra Byrne
“La Vie En Rose,” Marit Allen
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street,” Colleen Atwood
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“No End in Sight”
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”
“Sicko”
“Taxi to the Dark Side”
“War/Dance”
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“Freeheld”
“La Corona” (”The Crown”)
“Salim Baba”
“Sari’s Mother”
BEST FILM EDITING
“The Bourne Ultimatum,” Christopher Rouse
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Juliette Welfling
“Into the Wild,” Jay Cassidy
“No Country for Old Men,” Roderick Jaynes
“There Will Be Blood,” Dylan Tichenor
BEST MAKEUP
“La Vie en Rose”
“Norbit”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Atonement”, Dario Marianelli
“The Kite Runner”, Alberto Iglesias
“Michael Clayton”, James Newton Howard
“Ratatouille”, Michael Giacchino
“3:10 to Yuma”, Marco Beltrami
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Falling Slowly” from “Once”
“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted”
“Raise It Up” from “August Rush”
“So Close” from “Enchanted”
“That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted”
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
“I Met the Walrus”
“Madame Tutli-Putli”
“Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)”
“Peter & the Wolf”
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
“At Night”
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)”
“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”
