Best Movies of the Year So Far.

My favorite movies so far, all U.S. releases, except for the films made in Latin America or Spain, since we don't get too many of them so I go with the Mexican release instead. Even if I'm always complaining how Phoenix sucks for the Latin Alternative scene, we have great art houses for us cinefiles, and being part of the Phoenix Film Society & SOAP doesn't hurt ;)

Top 10

1. Two Lovers (James Gray, USA)
   
2. La Soledad (Jaime Rosales, Spain)
   
3. Le silence de Lorna (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, France)
   
4. Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim, South Korea)
   
5. Julia (Eric Zonca)
   
6. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
   
7. Desierto Adentro (Rodrigo Pla, Mexico)
   
8. Tokyo! (Joon-Ho Bong, Leos Carax & Michel Gondry, Japan/France)
   
9. Adventureland (Greg Mottola, USA)
10. Coraline (Henry Selik)
    

Club Fonograma Features: Babaluca

Babaluca is my favorite local band, and judging from the amount of plays their track “Que Bonito” received on our Rocola #6 they have the charm to shine in unexpected proportions. To our surprise, the song’s thousands of hits placed it on our Yearbook: Most Popular post as one of the top 10 most played pieces from more than 200 selections that were part of our jukebox throughout 2008. Babaluca discharges a handful of smiles and still holds its position as a tour de force unveiling itself throughout the small concert venues of Phoenix, Arizona. Their musical approach is precise, a multi dimensional gathering that is also transcending extremely well in their demo recordings. The trio consisting of Carla Morrison, Nicolas Kizer and Niki Petta is one of the most exciting projects we’ve featured so far, and we’re keeping a close eye for what’s to come, hopefully a first LP to continue to master their craft. Once again, it was a challenge to pick a song to share, their cover for Manu Chao’s “La Despedida” is as sublime as it can get.

Club Fonograma Features:
Babaluca.
Track: "La Despedida" (Manu Chao Cover)
Album: None
Label: Unsigned
Country: USA/Mexico
>>> MP3
MySpace

Stop the Circus / Event

Phoenicians. Tonight.
Click on pic.

Artist of the Week: Babaluca

Back in 2007 I was deeply joyful to witness a great pop/rock band from Phoenix (where I reside), they opened a concert for Kinky and I’ve followed them since. It was delightful hearing them cover Manu Chao’s “La Despedida” (watch on YouTube), some other familiar songs and an impressive set of original tracks that I found amazingly cheerful. They are a bilingual trio formed by the gifted lead vocalist Carla Morrison, the energetic drummer Nick Kizer and the multi-talented Nichole Petta. They carry a sense of lo-fi pop with slashes of punk and a blend of atmospheric psychedelic outlook rarely found in pop. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to catch them at November’s First Friday event (a monthly art walk in Phoenix) where they performed with the equally impressive band Underwater Getdown. The show was a triumph, especially for the new audience that walked by, was magnetically attracted by the great sound and bought their improvised but well-put together Babaluca EP (available for purchase at their MySpace). Included is their melodiously charming “Que Bonito”, which is the second most played song at our Rocola #6 (which is running low on bandwidth already) just after Natalia Lafourcade’s “Running too fast.” They are currently unsigned, but it seems they won’t go unheard; they have been on the MySpace Latino front page for more than a week, so take a look people, they got the package.

MySpace