Denmark's the Spot

It's been quite a while since my last film festival inclusion, but I've gotten word that my newest film will be screened (possibly premiered) at the Odense International Film Festival in Denmark. I always liked them Denmarkivians - a solid bunch, the lot of them! Worth noting that the film being screened is not the infrequently-mentioned Bullies, which is still mired in its distribution limbo, but another short entirely - a secret, mystery short, if you will, for I am so appealingly secretive and mysterious. At any rate it's good news, especially as I'd been feeling somewhat...without a paddle, I daresay.
On a completely unrelated subject, check out the latest animated Skwigly banner from notorious ghost'n'rock enthusiast Sue Dunham:

Keep your eyes on the site next month as June's banner is gonna be a corker. In the meantime swing by to check out the latest episode of Lightbox, in which I meet Greg McLeod, the visual half of BAFTA-winning sibling team The Brothers McLeod whose work includes Codswallop, 365, Isle of Spagg, Phone Home and the upcoming animated travelogue Marfa:

That other thing I do

It's rare that I get a personal project done and dusted on the exact date I'll have proclaimed I will but, sure enough, today being Sol Invictus/Scarlet Gospels day I've followed through and released my new album The Birdcage. So how 'bout that?
It's been a fair few years since my last full LP, my rate of music production significantly slowed since the days of this particular hobby's function as homework distraction, but I think the extra marinating time makes it a much easier listen. As hinted at earlier, save for the opening track and the odd loud moment here and there it came out very low-key, almost folksy in parts, especially considering how synth-pop-weird the earlier albums had been.
For now you can stream the whole album for free and, should you be so inclined, buy high quality songs for keeps at 50¢ each (you can save a few pennies if you buy the whole LP for a $5). There's no CD version yet but knock wood there'll be time over the summer to put together a nice package for those nostalgic types who still own something that will play a CD. In the meantime here's a track-by-track rundown:

Hope there's something amongst that lot for you to enjoy. While you're sifting through that I'll be drinking in the new Faith No More album and the new Clive Barker book simultaneously. If Alex Kingston can drop by and re-enact Moll Flanders in the corner then my trifecta of mid-nineties nostalgia will be complete.

'Cocky cockerel cuckolding' - quite proud of that one...

The latest podcast is now up! It's been a while but this will hopefully be worth the wait. It features the usual blather-on between myself and Steve on recent and upcoming Skwigly events, gushing over the new Don Hertzfeldt film and the glut of remakes this year has brought. In keeping with the latter I also chat to Ciro Nieli, the Exec Producer on Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the franchise that simply cannot die. Plus my indie hero Bill Plympton joins us again to discuss Revengeance (yet another feature film he's directing, this time in collaboration with writer and fellow indie animator Jim Lujan) and the mockumentary Hitler's Folly. Good stuff all round, so treat yisselfs and stream, download or subscribe away:
It's been a while since the last one, and realistically speaking it's getting less and less tenable to keep doing these podcasts in the same way I've done since I started three years back when both Steve and I didn't have quite so much on our plates. That isn't to say it's going away any time soon - if anything it'll be more of a frequent thing, albeit streamlined. But I'd like to do one more in the 'traditional' format and get us up to thirty before mixing things up a bit.
Also up this week is an interview with Tom Schroeder, whose magnificent animated film work includes Marcel, King of Tervuren, a tale of cocky cockerel cuckolding and one of my absolute favourites of 2013. When you've had a read of the interview give the film a watch, it's a good'un:

You had me at "I'd like to peel your skin off"

Today's reason to be rock-back-and-forth-giggling-and-crying happy comes in the form of Faith No More's latest album Sol Invictus being available to stream a week ahead of its physical release. I've been fighting the urge to listen to badly-compressed leaked versions of the album and as such it feels like I'm literally the only FNM fan in the world who hadn't heard it until today. But by Christ it was worth the wait. Every molecule of doubt that it wouldn't be up to their previous standard was jettisoned the moment I heard the first chorus of the opening title track. It'll need a few hundred listens for me to get a proper sense of it as right now listening to it is more of an emotional experience (I have emotions! Who knew?) than anything else, but in the meantime why not join me and treat yourselves?
It feels a bit limp and embarrassing to bring up my own music on the heels of such excellence, but in anticipation of the digital release of my latest Struwwelpeter album The Birdcage I've put up another new song, one that's fairly representative of the strangely upbeat, folksy/poppy feel of the LP as a whole. I imagine if I played this to myself as a teenager he'd screw his fat face up in confusion.

Also want to say thanks again to James of CineMe for having me on his show Short Cuts, talking animation, UWE, Bristol, Skwigly and my now-very-old short The Naughty List. The episode aired at the exact time last week's exit polls were causing the nation to collectively scream into a pillow so if you missed the broadcast you can watch it online here.

Addendum

Quickie update to amend the info in the last post, the episode of Short Cuts I'll be appearing on will now air this Thursday at 10pm, not tomorrow. All the channel info remains the same to the best of my knowledge. A few frames of The Naughty List also seems to have made it into the opening credits. Take a gander: