By Niall Christie and Tony Inglis
Here’s a rundown of the music released, films screening, shows playing, books read, events happening and stuff going on that we think is worth talking about this week.
Borg McEnroe – Released September 22
It may seem strange, but a tennis film following the battle between two of the game’s greatest is at the top of our watch list this week. Already splitting opinion, much like one half of the lead-acting duo, Shia LaBeouf, excitement seems to be rising around the film.
Alongside Swedish actor and very convincing Bjorn Borg lookalike, Sverrir Gudnason, LaBeouf and co will be hoping to take advantage of the increasingly popular state of the sport on the world stage. Covering the intense rivalry between the two players, culminating in the famous 1980 Wimbledon men’s final, there will be a great deal of interest, especially from those who may remember the two players at their height. NC
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Wednesday 27 September 2017
The past week has seen some extremely big names in alternative music bring their live shows to Glasgow and Edinburgh in LCD Soundsystem and The National respectively. This coming week sees Australia’s teller of dark tales, Nick Cave, arrive with his band of Bad Seeds. Still touring off the back of last year’s moving and momentous Skeleton Tree which, despite Cave’s lofty legacy, kind of came out of the blue with its shadowy quality and experimentalism. Underneath all of that, it was actually one of Cave’s more easily straightforward album to interpret – it will always be inextricably linked to the unexpected death of his son.
Judging from that record’s accompanying art documentary, One More Time With Feeling, the live show that supports this very sad and gut-wrenching music is swirling and hypnotic. It is a little unfortunate that the Glasgow audience has to experience it in a venue so soulless and lacking character. But that shouldn’t stop you from grabbing a ticket, of which there are some, amazingly, still available. TI
Neo Yokio, Netflix, available from September 22
Are you looking for a new anime, easily available on streaming service Netflix, about a reformed demon-slayer living with her nephew in an amalgam city of New York and Tokyo, filled with voice acting ranging from Jude Law to Alexa Chung to Richard Ayoade, and created by Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig? Well, no, me neither. But it’s a thing! And it’s worth checking out just out of sheer morbid curiosity. The six-parter, created in collaboration with animation studios Production I.G. and Studio Deen, could be a curate’s egg that is forgotten at once. On the other hand, there is so much pedigree talent involved, that it could be something more. TI
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Luciferian Towers
The release of a new Godspeed record always signals the chance to experience something world-moving in its scope and brain-rattling in its loudness. The Montreal band may not be the progenitors of mixing post-rock with leftist politics but, arguably, they do it best. And in a world where natural disasters pillory the earth and ‘rocket men’ and ‘dotards’ bicker over world-ending explosives, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s wordy press released manifestos and intricately composed cauldrons of noise could not have returned at a more apt moment. TI
June and Winter 