Matt's Recommendations- April '09

Since Cal got shafted by the long arm of 20th Century Fox, I thought I'd do a post.
I'm going to try and do this every month, depending on if I've actually been out enough to recommend things.

I'm going to recommend one of the following each month. (If I find more I'll add them too)

Film.
Game.
Band.

Film:
Into The Wild (2007)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(film)
Into the Wild is the film we all wish we were in. Not because the good guy blows the face off some bad guy with a 9mm, but because it's just such a great concept. A rich boy graduates from college, then ditches all his ties to the civilised world: His credit cards, his money, his ID, and goes on the road. This is an excellent film based on a book based on a true story and it's just such an optimistic film. Although the outcome of the film is quite dire, the film in general is utter brilliance. By far the best indie film I've ever seen. The film Stars Speed Racer before he was famous, and the younger Darko sister.
If you haven't seen it, rent it out. If you don't have the money to rent it out, steal it.

Game:
Phase (iPod)
http://www.phasegame.com/
It may seem odd that the first game I recommend to you is an iPod game, but yes, it's true. I bought this game over the Christmas '08 period, when I got quite a lot of iTunes vouchers. Anyway. Phase is a genius game, made by the makers of the Guitar Hero idea, and the developers behind Rock Band. Playable on the 3rd generation iPod nano and upwards, the game is brilliant. You press the middle button and the two adjacent buttons to hit the notes, which appear on three separate "strings". The game has five difficulties- three to begin with, then as you complete "Marathon Mode" - A game where you play five songs in a row, getting progressively harder, you unlock Expert Mode, then Insane. Unless you have three index fingers/ thumbs, I do not recommend Insane Mode. I have yet to complete a song on it. The game works in two ways: Hit notes to collect stars. For each section of the song, displayed by a checkpoint, you are given a quota of stars you have to collect in the given section, then depending on how many stars you've missed, you lose that amount of hearts. You start off with three hearts. To get more hearts you merely have to get more Stars than you're supposed to. The best part about Phase, is the fact that when you are sick of the songs you're playing, you simply switch on your computer, flick onto iTunes, and add more songs to the "Phase Playlist". The game has infinite replayability as a result of this. It costs something like
£2.89 on the iTunes store.


Band:
Beirut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDuDGjw86og
While not so much a Band as a single man, Beirut provide what I've been looking for musically for a long time:
Standout, interesting vocals that still prove a plethora of talent, and an interesting musical twist.
Beirut is defined as "Folk", but he also uses aspects of electro and the such. The aforementioned video, above, is "My Night With The Prostitute From Marseilles", my favourite song by Beirut. It's like the happiest friggin song I've ever heard ever. Somehow, in the song, you get every level of happiness listening to the song. Many people disagree with that but whatever. In the chorus, our man "Beirut" sings, but has put a lower pitch version of his vocals underneath that, which backs up the nice vocal style. It's truly brilliant.
Look for him
Listen to him
Love him


Matt out.